Term: Fall 2014
Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 507-388-2264 (home)
Office Hours: I check my e-mail daily (usually several times during the day), and have an answering machine on my home phone. There is no reason to flounder around, unsure of what “he wants” or confused about what you are doing; and even if everything is going fine with the coursework, there is more to learning than completing the assignments. I encourage you to visit me, in person or at a distance by phone or e-mail, many times during the course.
This workshop is designed to be the cumulative experience in the undergraduate certificate in nonprofit leadership. It will bring together the experience, education, and personal depth you have in the third sector. This will ensure a comprehensive array of knowledge, designed to prepare you to serve as leaders within the community and, specifically, nonprofit agencies.
Students will demonstrate competency in knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to function in the following areas:
· Gathering Resources
· Fiscal Management
· People Management
· Managing Operations
For details, click here
In order to effectively address the competency areas, this course will combine (online) classroom and field projects. Students are expected to actively participate and contribute positively to the learning process.
Students are required to read and understand the chapter(s) assigned at the beginning of each topic. There will not be any tests or quizzes over the material in the readings; rather, you will demonstrate how well you have understood the readings through your weekly essays.
Since we do not meet as a class, the closest thing we have to this is the Discussion tab on D2L. I will pose a question to start out the discussion, and each student must
· Report on a professional journal article related to the discussion question,
· Respond reflectively to the discussion question, and
· Respond to at least one posting by a classmate to the discussion question.
For more information, click here.
Each student will identify a nonprofit organization with which to volunteer over the course of the semester. For more information, click here
Throughout the course, I will assign exercises, sometimes to each of you individually, sometimes to all of you as a group, to give you the opportunity to practice the skills that you are learning about. Each exercise will contain its own instructions and deadlines.
Due date |
Topic |
|
Exercises |
8/28 |
|
Introduce yourself on discussion board |
|
|
Gathering Resources |
|
|
9/4 |
Designing
& Managing the Fundraising Program; “Next-Gen Donors” (in D2L
Contents) |
|
|
9/11 |
Managing the
Challenges of Government Contracts & “Dark Side to Government
Support” (D2L “Contents”) |
|
|
9/18 |
Ch. 12 (Ch.16) |
||
9/25 |
“Managing in For-Profits’ Shadow” (D2L); “Louvre,
Inc.” (Time Magazine, 8/11/08), “Social Entrepreneurs” & “Jolt for
Charity” (in D2L Contents) |
Ch. 17 |
“Save the Theater” (in D2L Course Contents) |
|
Financial
Management |
|
|
10/2 |
|
|
|
10/9 |
(Financial Accounting, cont.) |
|
|
10/16 |
|
|
|
|
People Management |
|
|
10/23 |
(Ch. 9) |
|
|
10/30 |
|
|
|
11/6 |
Designing and Managing Volunteer Programs & Keeping the Community Involved: Recruiting & Retaining Volunteers |
|
|
|
Managing Operations |
|
|
11/13 |
|
|
|
11/20 |
Needs
Assessment, Evaluating
the Effectiveness of Nonprofit Organizations & Outcome
Assessment and Program Evaluation “Social Return on
Investment” (in D2L Course Content) |
(Ch. 6) |
|
11/26 |
“Prove it!” (in D2L) |
||
12/8 |
Service learning report due; course evaluation due (behind “Surveys” tab on D2L) |
It is your responsibility to post your responses in a timely fashion, interact with your mentors, and engage in online class activities. I expect all the work for each week to be posted by Midnight on Thursday of the week listed in the Course Calendar (except for Thanksgiving and Finals weeks). If there is an emergency which requires you to be away from your computer, please contact me immediately. I will give partial credit for assignments that come in during the next time period; assignments posted after that will not earn course credit unless there is a prior agreement. You are paying for this class—make sure to get your “money’s worth.” Most importantly, this is an excellent foundation of knowledge for future activities, and it is a chance for you to learn, teach, and grow with others.
Loss of computer connection or network services are not an excuse for not getting work submitted on time (if you lose your connection, go to another location to do your work—a public library, the ACC, a friend’s computer, etc.) You can get help with technical problems from the MSUM computer help desk at help@mnsu.edu or go the 3rd floor of the Library.
There are 100 points for the course, divided as follows:
1) Weekly essays & discussions (10@5 pts.) 50
2) Exercises/Case Studies (4@ 10 pts.) 40
3) Final paper—report on service learning 10
The final grade may be based on a curve, but students can expect at least an A if they achieve 90%, a B with 80%, etc.
All assignments (including discussion) are due on the assigned date. Partial credit may be given for assignments
that are less than one week late, unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
Written reports are expected to be free of grammatical, spelling, and content
errors. They should be submitted in typewritten, standard formats (APA,
MLA, URSI Style Sheets). You must
familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic
Honesty Policy. I encourage you to
draw on the ideas of others—but you must also identify when you do so (you gain “brownie points” for citing the work
of others!). Plagiarism is a serious
breach of academic behavior and will result in an F for the course.
I will help you in whatever manner humanly possible. However, once the semester is over, there is not a great deal I can do. If there is something that you don’t understand, are having problems with, or need help on, please get in touch with me as early as possible.
Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you area student with a documented disability, please contact us as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at 507-389-2825 (V) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY).
There are a number of interesting and useful books and articles that might help you dig deeper into the issues raised in this course. The link above takes you to a list of some of my favorites.
© 2003 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 23 August 2014